a. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to TV advertising and more specifically to methods of selling TV advertising using an auctioning method.
b. Description of the Background
TV advertising has typically been sold in time slots, such as 30-second time slots or 1-minute time slots that are scheduled during breaks in the TV programming. These breaks may be prescheduled at certain times during prerecorded programs or may be scheduled instantaneously, at various times, during live programming such as sporting events.
Scheduled advertising is budgeted and paid for well in advance of the airing of the television programs. For example, advertising slots are typically assigned months in advance of the airing of the program. This is true for both live and prerecorded programming.
Such long required lead times limit the flexibility of advertisers and broadcasters for various changing conditions such as budget changes, changes in the popularity or interest in programs and other such factors. As a result, advertisers may be required to purchase advertising spots for programs that later turn out to be unpopular, or be limited in the amount of advertising spots that they can purchase for programs that later turn out to be popular. Additionally, interest may change even during the airing of a program. For example, lopsided or very close scores during a sporting event may cause a change in public interest. Both advertisers and television broadcasters suffer from reduced revenues as a result of these disadvantages.